sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems I have 1010 calling blocked but still toll fraud

I have a Meridian where about a year ago we had our installer come in an upgrade the system to 6.1 software and the NAM to 4.0 or 4.1. The tech check that all the features were working however forgot to disable the outbound transfer on the voicemail box he was testing so we were the victim of toll fraud. Hackers forward calls to the Phillipenes and racked up $5000 over AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon through this mailbox.

What I cannot figure out is how these calls were made via AT&T and others when we have a different carrier and why no fraud calls were on our normal long distance bill. We allow international calling but have our system configured to globally block 1010 calling. Even when I dail 0 or 00 for an international operator they will not connect me to an international number manually when I ask them. AT&T and Sprint cannot explain what the callers dialed in order to get onto their network.

If I have 1010 calling blocked and operators will not connect me manually to International numbers, how can calls be made to go over other long distance carrier networks?

First where do you have 1010 blocked? I block it on voice mail DN's and the lines themselves. Also the 1010 codes go through your original carrier and get passed off to AT&T so it is AT&T or whoever that you might receive the bill from. One thing I did was let my carrier know that I do not use Pick Codes (1010) for any reason and they actually blocked it at the CO. I've been lucky no Toll Fraud for 9 years now. I was hit for 30k over that weekend.

Some smart steps:

Put SMDR on your system and you would know what port was making the call and how. It is cheaper than a court fight with any telecom carrier.

Send a certified letter to your carrier that if your overseas bill exceed 150% of (an average month) to shut down access. Put the liability on them.

Add in that no 1010 access be allowed (as JimmyT says) and mention that you assume no liability for any 1010 call.

Put 011 on a speed dial and deny everyone access to zero with speed dial overriding toll restriction.

Make sure there is no access to your lines (copper-not T-1/PRI) in a hallway closet, the Norstar toll restriction only works from there on. It wouldn't be hard to put some dialers in a closet that are call forwarded to Russia and your Norstar toll restriction would have no effect. Slap in a dialer Friday night, take it out Sunday night and the crooks have two days of uninterrupted calls with no evidence-only the carrier can stop that.

If even one mailbox was allowed a line out you are stuck.

Put in the damn SMDR and if it logs no calls over the weekend, it proves it was access outside your office, not in your office, you can't be responsible. Oh but that costs money Mr. Bill. Not as much as you are paying now.

Change your dial nine to dial 33 or something, they are looking for a one digit dial nine code, not a two digit 33.

Don't forget to put in the SMDR, OK?

I did not think of changing the 9 to something else. How do you do that on a Meridan with 6.1 software?

I also notice that I can dial 8 + the number. Can that be turned off?

Also,

Know what I find funny is that when I told AT&T that I have 1010 calling blocked so no-one from either the Vmail or a phone can specifically dial a 1010 number they dropped the whole bill. Then I just got a confirmation in the mail confirming the credit under condition that "I" don't hold "them" responsible for anything.

I also just recently got a bill from Sprint as well. Whe AT&T caught the fraud on their own after a couple of hours of calls on the weekend they us out of their network and the fraud people moved onto Sprint. When I called Sprint and told them that I blocked 1010 calling and asked them specifically what the people dialed to get onto the Sprint network they also dropped the charges right away but did give up a tid-bit.

I asked why the calls to the Phils were between $8-$10 per minute when I can call from my cell phone for about 50 Cents. The customer service rep told me that Sprint has been investigating this for several months and have know idea why the rates are jacked up so much. It is like the fraud people are calling a Phil 1900 number or something.

You have access codes for the dial 9 groups and dial 8 groups. If you don't know how to change those, I would get a tech to come in and teach you how to do that so you have a feel for programming and can do something for yourself. An hour of training is money well spent.

In fact I just thought of another clever trick, get one of those dial tone simulators and hook it to a copper trunk and put only that in the dial 9 group. They could spend hours trying to figure out why they can't get an outside call to go through. Give them some grief.

I Have a similar problem with a customer
I have a restriction filter with all calls
blocked and calls are still getting out.
I went to Nortels web site and found a download labled "Norstar Voice Mail 4.1 Blocking Toll Fraud Patch" which seems to imply a flaw in the software. However I can't download it because I'm
not a registered dealer. And I can't find out any
more info than that. If anyone knows and/or
has a copy of the patch it would be appreciated.
thanks

BCM is an authorized dealer, why not PM him and see if he can modem into your system, he probably has the patch.

I think most of Norstar sales are gray market, no dollar committment and a dealer to back you up.

If you bought this system from a dealer, could you not get it from them. If the customer got it from a real Norstar dealer, could they not get it modemed in from them?

Did you block the star phone features ,before the dialed number (*67…) ???

I have seen people getting around the toll restriction by dialing *67 first ... *67 blocks the outbound caller id, then returns you to a dialtone ... since * is the first number, not 1+ or 01+, it won't block it, unless you block *671+ and *670+